Continental Airlines to Inaugurate Service Between Houston/Hobby and New York, Cleveland Hubs
Monday February 9, 12:54 pm ET

HOUSTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News) today announced it will inaugurate nonstop service beginning Sept. 8 between Hobby Airport in Houston and its hubs in New York and Cleveland.
ADVERTISEMENT

Once-daily nonstop service to and from Newark Liberty International Airport and twice-daily service to and from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will link those hubs with the airport serving Houston's south side. Hobby-Liberty services will be operated by 104-seat Boeing 737 aircraft, while Hobby-Cleveland Hopkins services will be operated by 50-seat Embraer regional jet aircraft.

"These new flights will offer convenient service to those who live or do business in Houston's south side and the surrounding suburbs, as well as convenient connections at our New York and Cleveland hubs to those Northeast and Midwest cities not currently served nonstop from our Houston hub at Bush Intercontinental Airport," said a Continental spokesperson.

Continental's daily nonstop from Houston/Hobby to New York will depart at 7:15 a.m. and arrive at Liberty Airport at 11:46 a.m. The return flight will depart Liberty at 6 p.m. and arrive in Houston at 8:58 p.m.

From Houston/Hobby to Cleveland, the first daily flight will depart to at 6:30 a.m., arriving at Hopkins Airport at 10:15 a.m. The second flight will depart Hobby at 2 p.m. and arrive at Hopkins at 5:45 p.m. The first return flight will depart Cleveland/Hopkins at 9:30 a.m. and arrive at Hobby at 11:35 a.m. The second flight will depart Hopkins at 8:30 p.m. and arrive at 10:35 p.m.

Continental Airlines, with its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, offers more nonstop flights to more cities from the New York area than any other airline in the world. The airline operates nearly 400 daily all-jet departures from Liberty International to more than 140 cities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe and Asia, with additional services from LaGuardia, Kennedy and White Plains airports.

Continental's hub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport offers more than 250 daily flights to 80 cities.

Continental Airlines is the world's seventh-largest airline with more than 2,300 daily departures to 126 domestic and 101 international destinations throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. With 42,000 mainline employees, the airline has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and carries approximately 51 million passengers per year. FORTUNE ranks Continental one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America, an honor it has earned for six consecutive years. FORTUNE ranked the company highest among major U.S. carriers in the quality of its service and products, and No. 2 on its list of Most Admired Global Airlines in 2003. For more company information, visit continental.com.

COEWRNJ...
I think you are right about it getting axed right around the time of 9/11.
On the other hand, what great news today about CO. It definitely looks like things are looking better and better for Continental!!
Hope to hear some new international destinations soon also. From IAH of course.

I must say that I find this surprising. While the HOU-IAH "rivalry" is nothing compared to the DFW-DAL dispute, I thought CO was pretty committed to IAH. In addition, their ERJ operation from EFD to IAH was designed as a convenience to passengers in Galveston and south Houston. HOU and EFD aren't all that far apart, so I am surprised that this new service is launching. Given the proximity to downtown, however, I would bed that the HOU-EWR service grows to 3-4 daily flights.

I wouldn't be surprised either if the EWR-HOU flight grows to be a few daily. I think when they started it last time it was twice daily. I to hope they announce new international destinations in the near future, but unlike COIAH99 I would like to see them from EWR. Anyway great news..

Wont last. WN will drive them out. If you live in Houston, it is worth the extra drive to get to IAH to catch a flight to EWR. The only reason I see them making this move is b/c HOU is closer to downtown. Still, if your a prominant business person, a limo or cab ride from IAH to dtwn wont be any problem.

WN won't drive them out of HOU-EWR. This new service is pretty much solely O&D, and it will attract CO frequent flyers, especially in south Houston. Who knows how long CLE will last, but I'd count on HOU-EWR staying for a while. I do wonder if CO will restart the HOU-IAH shuttle, which used to operate alongside the EFD-IAH shuttle with an EMB-120.

Considering WN hasn't added any service to Cleveland in years (OK maybe a once a week flight here and there), and in fact taken away service (last time I checked, BWI went down one as did STL), I don't think CO is losing any sleep over CLE-HOU service.

This service is also being offered to continue service to the south side of Houston. As of Septmber 8, Ellington will no longer have Continental service. The Hobby service will enable the south side frequent flier members access into the CO system without the drive.

This isn't exciting news for CLE fans, another ERJ!! That pushes the total to about 150 a day!
More international flights out of CLE, not regional!!!! Bring in those wide bodies!!(we have no wide bodies at all!!)

I just did a search on Continental.com for EFD flights after Sept. 10. No results were found.

It's too bad if these rumors turn out to be true. I know people in the area who pretty much depend on that service, and they say their flights are always full. Then again, they don't pay anything extra for it, so it could be costing CO (or ExpressJet, I guess) quite a bit of cash. Glad I don't live in Galveston -- I'd hate a 2-3 hour drive to IAH in Houston traffic!

CO has flown into Hobby from EWR on and off a couple times since '89, I know I flew from LAX to EWR via HOU back in '89.

The flight from LAX-HOU was a 737-300 and the flight from HOU-EWR was a 727-200.

This makes sense because of a couple of reasons, one of which is the fact that it makes it easier for CO to get 737s into their main heavy Maintenance base at Hobby.

Hobby is the heavy maintenance base for CO 737s and less M80s, they have been non-reving aircraft over from IAH for years. Now they can get some revenue off these flights, and it's easier to rotate EWR based Aircraft through to Hobby.

This is the only photo I could find of CO's Hobby heavy maintenance base: